If It's All for Him, It Could All Be for Naught (Pt1)
by AndroidEvian
Summary: Yusei x Aki The two take a Valentine's Week Challenge to win the heart of the person they love by Valentines day. Disclaimer: I own nothing here


I watched Crow intently as he cranked under the stomach compartment of my soon to be duel runner. His brow was beaded with sweat from the work, and I was standing by, ready to give him any tool or carry out any command he asked.

"Hand me that wrench right there would'ja?" Crow requested.

"Oh, sure thing!" I replied, handing him the curvy wrench on the table next to me. Amusingly, this reminded me more of a surgical operation than a mechanical creation. Well, in some ways, it was like a surgical procedure. Removing, adding, readjusting body parts to a patient (the duel runner). And a table filled with tons of helpful tools, either for reduction or enhancement, destroying or creating…

Lots of different tools… My brain suddenly flashed me into a memory. I was laid on a surgical table, completely stupid on Valium, and only a pale cloth covering my body. I saw Sayer walk over, stroking my hair. He didn't say much, just "This will only hurt for a moment," and he plunged a needle into my inner forearm, blood leaking into the clear glass vial as I watched helplessly. I then felt a squeeze on my shoulders, and Sayer's mouth spoke with a voice that wasn't his.

"Akiza, snap out of it!" I was then back in reality, Yusei shaking me by my shoulders. I felt the hot moisture of tears down my cheeks, and examined my situation. All the mechanic's tools that had morphed into scalpels and needles in my memory were crowding around Crow in the air. He had only a steel pane guarding his skin from their brute iron force. I blinked myself out of the fear and everything fell to the floor with a shrieking clatter of metal. I then picked up my power balancing hair ornament, dusted it off, and rolled it back into my hair.

"I told you; you are the only one who can bring her back when she gets like that." Crow said, brushing a bit of dirt off his clothes.

"Yeah, and you were right. So what?" Yusei replied, turning his cheek to look at Crow. I noticed the skin had been slashed open, and I reached over to touch the wound. Yusei winced, pawing my hand away. "You're hurt…" I commented, trying to turn his face to me so I could get a better look at the slice wound.

"It's just a scratch." Yusei dismissed it by wiping the dripping blood off his cheek. "I'm just glad you're okay." He added, joining Crow by the unfinished duel runner. "But what made you freak out so bad?" He asked, patching and connecting some electrical wires in the stomach compartment of the vehicle. I relaxed into the rug beside him, thinking of how to describe it.

"I don't know how to explain it," I began. "But have you ever just remembered something you shouldn't have, and then it just replayed right before your eyes?" Yusei pondered this a bit, shutting the stomach of my ride with a click.

"You mean like a movie?" He replied, obviously still thinking.

"Kind of. Only more as you're the character, awaiting your worst moment, and as much as you want to change the situation, you can't do anything but follow the script you were given." Yusei put his index finger and thumb over his lips, as he normally would when in deep thought,

"Well, I do remember a time when I almost died in a street accident," He said finally. "And sometimes when I'm on the road and it starts getting turbulent, I do start to sort of relive that moment." I nodded at his reply, wondering how dangerous it was in the Satellite half of New Domino City.

"It's true," Crow clarified from the right wing of the incomplete duel runner. "Officer Kaz ran right into him, shattering pretty much his entire left ribcage, and ripped open his gut with the police car's spoiler when Yusei flew off his duel runner. He had tried to catch it you know? But he caught it with the wrong place." Crow elbowed Yusei playfully in the stomach.

"Sounds like that was pretty serious…" I commented.

"Oh, it was serious alright. He even has the scars to prove just how serious it was." Yusei gingerly removed his jacket, and then his shirt, revealing a tan, muscular upper body. I didn't notice anything at first, but as he took a breath, a huge white slash flexed with his abdominal area, running from the top of his left hipbone to the middle of his right clavicle. Not even an inch from his fatality point, the jugular vein within the side of his neck.

"My God, Yusei…" I stepped closer, tracing my finger over the long jagged scar marring Yusei's caramel brown skin. It felt soft, dead of any blood flow or biological life of any kind. I felt my eyes get hot with emotion. A strand of imagination went wild, showing Yusei draped over the sharp spoiler, eyes wide with fear, flowed from the scar up my arm and into my brain.

"Why are you crying?" I heard. I then realized it was Yusei, wiping tears from my brown eyes with his bare hand instead of with his glove. I cradled his hand against my face for some reason. I suppose I liked the feeling of the pulse inside it. After all, the scar tissue in his chest was lifeless to my fingers, completely barren of vascular movement inside.

"I just… The idea that you nearly died really scares me." Yusei's electric blue eyes shone with realization, and I spread his hand open. I moved my finger along the vein curving into the circular shape that led to his thumb, and he looked up at me, confused. "You're my best friend," I continued, stroking the skin around his thumb meaningfully. "And the last thing I want is for you, or any of the friends I've made here to come that close to death, let alone death itself." Summoning my courage, I embraced Yusei, just to show my sincerity. Gingerly, I felt Yusei return my embrace, his arms warm around my waist. I then had a thought.

"You too, Crow." I addressed him, a look of pleasant surprise crossing his face.

"Well I'll be damned," He mused. "Crow Hogan finally getting to join a hug." So it was the three of us, all just hugging each other for a bit.

"We should take a picture." Crow said after a few minutes. I was reluctant about photos, but Yusei seemed to like the idea too. And as the law is, majority rules. So I was sandwiched in between a smiling Yusei, who had put only his jacket on, and a leering Crow Hogan. We'd set the camera to picture mode, and I used my psychic powers to keep it levitating.

"Oh, one more thing." Yusei commented.

"What's that?" I asked. He took the power balance from my hair, smiling with satisfaction.

"You look more natural when your hair is down." He remarked.

"I should be taking the photo though, not posing in it." I murmured, burrowing into Crow's shoulder to try to conceal myself. Yusei turned my face directly towards the camera.

"Akiza, you look beautiful." He then pressed the button on the camera and put his hand on my head and his cheek next to mine with a genuine smile. I then gave a smile of my own, happy to be in the picture. It was one of those moments where you just appreciate that you're loved.

It surprised me that Yusei was so willing to participate in a selfie-shoot. He was always kind of a low profile person, never really stepping out from the background. As someone who's part of the background though, I can understand why he doesn't choose to stand out like Jack and the twins.

People are always in your business, you usually have to be perfect around everyone, there's never an end to gossip, and you're always the one who gets picked for stuff, even when you don't like it. Luna: usually is picked as the brains of the class, so other kids like to make fun of her. Leo: the speed force in his gym class so he usually gets called "show-off" and "dumb jock". Jack: always dealing with the press industry, never seeing an end to fan mail, doesn't have any time to spend with Sherry where they aren't accused of being secret lovers. As you can see, cons overrule pros of being a popular, out of the shadows person in the world.

Which reminds me… today does feel like a day where I could step out of the shadows, get a little confident. It's almost Valentine's Day. And there are certain jobs in the creative minds industry that need to be filled… I can feel a genius plot forming in my head! I decided to pose this idea as a challenge to Yusei.

"Yusei," I prompted, rolling my power balancer back in my hair. "I have a challenge for you." His mouth immediately curled upward in a smile of curiosity.

"What's the challenge?" He asked, already cracking his knuckles.

"Well… since Valentine's Day is coming up. I thought maybe it would be a good challenge to…try to win the heart of that person you like…" I felt the top of my cheeks turn cherry red, and I put my face down shamefully.

"That's a really stupid idea, isn't it?" I said, staring at my shoes.

"No… I don't think it's stupid at all." Yusei seemed to actually be very open to this idea, and I smiled as he finished the day's work on my duel runner.

"Great," I said. "Then we'll see who's gotten the closest to their special person at the end won't we?"

"Yes. I think we will." Crow then spoke up.

"Can I be a part of this if I have someone in mind?"

"Sure," I replied. "In fact, make it a challenge for everyone who's up to it, would you, Crow?" Yusei's whole face grew three times more competitive. I could see his involuntary knuckle cracking was already a sign he was thinking to knock Jack right out on this challenge. I took just a small peek at his thoughts.

When I pull my first move, it's gonna be all down the drain for Jack… I giggled as I heard this, wondering what and who his plans were for. Or maybe he would even try to get closer to a multiple amount of people. Either way, my challenge was to get closer to him. And that, my friends, is a true challenge. Even though Yusei has everything a girl could want in a guy, he can be painfully shy about some things… which would explain why he often uses his fists against Jack instead of words… .

I then saw the light bulb-in-the-brain-look flicker across Yusei's face and he stood up giving advice to Crow.

"You don't have to work on that if you have someone for the challenge." He told Crow.

"I don't, I just hoped to prompt the question for the rest of the guys." I gave him the -_- look.

"And girls! And girls too." I flipped my hair as if to say "That's better," like a snob. I then tried to come up with a couple ways to get closer to Yusei within the week before Valentine's Day. I don't know much about Yusei, now that I think about it. But I do know what keeps people's attention on you, and just making conversation could draw people in.

I Googled "interesting things happening this week" since I had no idea what would be interesting for Yusei. I saw that a Museum was open all week as of tomorrow, February 10th, all about the history of duel runners and how someone came up with idea. I saw a concert was happening on February 11th, by a fairly popular artist, The Gazette, who experimented with various styles of rock. I had heard a few songs by them that I had really liked, "Chizuru," "Distress and Coma" and "Cassis".

Also, Yusei and I weren't too different from what I observed. He seemed to like a lot of the hard rock music, (Three Days Grace, Airish, Escape the Fate post and pre Ronnie's leave.) Though he also enjoyed some of the acoustic music like Grayson Kessenich and even some dark rap, (Kyle Spratt, Eminem, MGK) daft punk (I See Stars in their older days) and alternative rock artists. (Blink-182, All Time Low, etc.)

So far the concert seemed like the best thing to use, but I saw one even going on today. It was a creative photo shoot, where the photographers would let you customize an idea for your photo, create it on their computers, and then they'd snap the photo you designed with their fancy cameras. I figured that even though Yusei probably would have preferred to take a photo, he'd like the option of customizing a photo with his ideas and mine put together. I printed out the rest of the list of "interesting things of this week," and pinned it to my door inside my room. I then went to look for Yusei, who was probably brainstorming in his own room. I didn't find him there, but in the library, checking a book off the shelf. I snuck up behind him, quiet as could be.

"Whatcha reading?" Yusei gave a satisfying "AH!" of surprise, and jumped about ten feet off the ground. I giggled, giving him a moment to try to calm himself.

"God, Akiza; you scared the hell out of me!"

"I'm sorry, Yusei. I didn't mean to scare you." I lied, still giggling a bit. "Anyway, um, I was wondering…"

"Yes?" No. Must be confident about this.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to Falien's Photography House with me."

"Any special reason?" He looked a bit doubtful of this, and I filled in the facts.

"Well, today's the anniversary of Falien's Photography House, and the photographers and computer guys are giving people the option to customize a plan for their photo, and then they get to create it on the computer. So pretty much you can make a background and whatever else and then they'll photograph the person and put the custom stuff around it. And it's sort of free…" I could tell this was gonna fail, but at least I was trying. Yusei took a couple long moments to think about this.

"Sure, why not?" My face shot up in surprise.

"Really?" I said, hardly believing Yusei wanted to go there with just me.

"Yeah. Photos are the best way to remember something, and if it's free you know I'm in." He smiled sincerely. "What time do we leave?" I checked my watch, and I knew it took about 25 minutes of driving to get to the photography shop, but luckily time was still on our side.

"Well we have about fifteen minutes to get ready." I said, sighing with relief.

"So I guess we better decide what to wear." Yusei nodded agreeably, and I left him alone so he could get dressed and do whatever else he planned to before we went. I decided I'd start picking out my clothes as well, which didn't take long.

I then put together my thoughts on what the photo should look like. On my side, I thought of thorns and roses, and I decided that would be on my half of the photo when we posed. I didn't know what Yusei was thinking, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise by reading his mind. So I read a book for a bit, almost nodding off in the silence.

I didn't realize how tired I was today, so I went to the bathroom to wash my face. I removed my gloves and smoothed back my hair, tucking it behind my ears. I then turned on the water making sure it was cold enough. I cupped the water in my hands and bent my face over the sink, rinsing repeatedly and grabbing a hand towel nearby to pat my face dry. I took my makeup kit from the compartment behind the mirror and picked my usual palettes. A light coat of eyeliner, then eye shadow and mascara to follow. My lips were done in a pale pink, and for good luck I put a flower in my hair. I turned to wipe my hands on the towel I had used to dry my face, and turned back to examine myself. I then cried out with fear. The other part of me, insane and corrupted by the power I had, was staring back at me, smiling ear to ear.

"Hey there, beautiful. Did you miss me?" It was at that moment that Yusei came through to my room, throwing open the bathroom door, panic clear on his face.

"Akiza, what's wrong?" Yusei asked, just in the edge of the doorway. I looked back to the mirror, and saw the other part of me had vanished.

"It's nothing… just saw an old friend in the mirror." Yusei nodded, and I hoped the impression I had given him was right. The last thing I needed would be for that thing to mess up the rest of my week. I then noticed Yusei's clothing, completely different from his usual style.

"What?" He asked, evidently oblivious to what I was staring at.

"You just look really different." I commented, still stunned by the change.

"What, I can't get handsome anymore?" He teased, pulling his coat into place like a rich man.

"I don't think handsome would be enough for what I'm looking at right now." Yusei's playboy manner vanished, automatically replaced with that shy nature as his cheeks turned a slight shade of pink towards the top. I checked my watch, noticing we needed to leave.

"We need to go." I said, grabbing my bag and pulling it over my shoulder. "We have 25 minutes of driving head of us, and we've just about used the spare minute to get in the means of travel." Yusei halted my rushing, just as I got to the sitting room.

"A man is always prepared." He mused, and as he snapped his fingers, the floor panels came right open, and the left wall did the same. Yusei's red duel runner waited for us, lights flaring excitedly. He gave me a polite smile, and gestured "ladies first." I sat down on the back seat, putting on Yusei's spare helmet. He hopped in front, and I held onto his waist for the ride. I couldn't wait till we got going.

"Drive up to 678 Chester Ave. North. Then turn on the corner from there, two left and one right, and then we'll be able to see it." Yusei nodded, and I tightened my grip on his abdomen. He pushed down on the pedal, and turned the thrust handles back, the engine growling. Yusei then hit the runway, his wheels running along the steel smoothly and then transitioning onto the asphalt of the road just as easily.

We didn't say anything on the way there, just listened to the sound of the radio, playing all our favorite songs. It started with "Shatter Me," a popular Lindsey Stirling song, and I sang along as carelessly as I knew how. Yusei laughed when I cracked on one of the notes, and I found this funny too, oddly. I hadn't been able to laugh at myself for a long time, having always had other people laugh at me whenever I did make a mistake. This felt good, right; being able to just have a friend I could laugh with instead of crying after being laughed at. I laid my head on Yusei's shoulder as we rode, and just by instinct, I kissed his cheek. I felt the heat rise in his face as I did that, and giggled at his innocent boy reaction. He's so shy it's funny!

"You know, if you focus on something I did, it's going to be your fault when we crash land our way into Officer Kaz's police department.

"Oh, right!" Yusei seemed to refocus, his foot pushing down a little harder on the pedal. I don't blame him for rushing. I thought. We could be late if we don't hurry. I thought casually. I noticed a strange feel in the air, almost like someone was freeing silk webs from a spider. I didn't see anything on my hands, and Yusei didn't notice.

Must be my imagination… the idea wasn't totally ludicrous. I had just imagined my other part in the mirror only twenty minutes ago. Twenty minutes ago… almost thereJ. I decided to take a little nap on my driver, letting my eyes slide shut for the remaining minutes. As the minutes passed, my ears focused intently on the song called "Cut" by Plumb, and I felt as though the music itself was a gift from the stars. Some music just gets to you like that. It gets under your skin and in your blood, flowing into your heart and up to your brain. Then you just revel in it, your whole being lifted by the sound of the music.

"You know this song?" Yusei asked, and I barely registered the words.

"Yes. I was singing wasn't, I?" -_- I deadpanned.

"Yes. Are you ashamed or something?"

"I just hate that I do it without realizing it." - I replied, my face probably burning with self-loathing.

"You shouldn't. You sound good when you sing…" I blushed slightly, but this wasn't entirely untrue. I was decent at singing, though I never sang when someone commanded me to. Which would explain why I was only decent. I had not nearly enough practice to do something amazing with my voice. We turned the streets on 678th Chester Ave. North, and the building was much larger than I expected. 5 stories tall, elegant in panes of black glass, and shaped with a modern castle physique.

Yusei gave a whistle of applaud, as if this was done by men. I grabbed his hand and led him in as quickly as I could, hoping that we'd avoided looking like idiots marveling at a building. The receptionist asked for our names, checked our ID's, and then our address. I was sure it was only to mail stuff like "exclusive offers" and "invitations to annual activities." She then gave us the okay, and handed us a slip of paper with the room number, photographer profile, and a one question quiz on which camera we prefer she used. I checked "Sony Eclipse 5.9" and walked upstairs to room 379. Yusei seemed curious just looking at the photography on the walls. Some of it was disturbing, to say the least of the photographer's idea of expressive camera work. I opened the door to 379, and the young ginger in the profile greeted us warmly.


End file.
